Alan Laidlaw Email and Phone Number
www.comcast.com
Alan Laidlaw's Location
Berthoud, Colorado, United States, United States
Alan Laidlaw's Contact Details
Alan Laidlaw work email
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Alan Laidlaw personal email
n/a
Alan Laidlaw phone numbers
About Alan Laidlaw
As a Principal Network Engineer at Comcast, I have over 20 years of experience in IP data networking, designing and implementing innovative and cost-effective solutions for some of the largest networks in the United States. I have a strong electrical engineering education, a Six Sigma Green Belt certification, and a passion for engineering excellence.I have successfully delivered more than 20 significant network projects, from scratch to completion, creating information-dense diagrams, clarifying business requirements, and migrating multi-platform configuration templates into the new automation-centric system. I have also worked closely with video business units, junior team members, and external partners, demonstrating my collaboration, communication, and coaching skills. My goal is to seek the solutions to the hardest problems and see them through to successful implementation, while ensuring network reliability, security, and performance.
Alan Laidlaw's Current Company Details
Comcast
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Principal Network Engineer @ Comcast | Network automation and documentation
www.comcast.com
- Website:
- comcast.com
Alan Laidlaw Work Experience Details
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Principal Network EngineerComcast Sep 2007 - PresentPhiladelphia, Pa, UsDesigned from scratch and created ongoing feature enhancements for more than 20 significant network projects. Well received output documentation included creating Tufte inspired information-dense diagrams that rapidly convey all the key conceptsWorked closely with video business units to reduce the ambiguity in their requirements to the point where network designs met their needs and timelines could be createdMigrated more than 140 multi-platform configuration templates into the new automation-centric template system in less than two years. Key developer in this effort to move to intent driven networking which included developing Python based scripts to combine minimized variable files with static data lookup tables and logic in order to create complete service output rather than template fragmentsConducted research using both RFC's and talking with product vendors to develop network solutions for new services including L4S, Low Latency-Low Loss Scalable TCP.Enjoyed running regular mentoring sessions for junior engineers to help them become more productive and take over responsibility for maintenance of more mature projectsWorked closely with security architecture to deliver appropriate network security Creatively used F5 load balancers and anycast to solve interesting corner case problemsDesigned outage-free network for video-on-demand control system for 40M+ customersCreated a network that moves video encoding equipment to video provider locations, reducing delivery cost and improving video qualityDeveloped diagramming method for capturing metro scale fiber topology and fate sharing as part of an early DWDM projectEnabled replacement of video-on-demand control system and video streamers with new cost-efficient systems with a network design that permitted both to co-exist during transition.Created a touch screen driven proof of concept demonstration for a senior management presentation at the conclusion of an engineer development program
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Systems EngineerSandvine Jun 2006 - Aug 2007Waterloo, On, CaManaged the configuration and technical support of more than 1,700 PTS 8210 deep packet inspection probes and more than 75 SRP 3000 database servers across Comcast’s nationwide data networkTracked status, and detailed configuration data for all devices, and provided weekly updates for management at both Sandvine and Comcast.Coached junior team members in the efficient methods to configure and maintain the PTS and SRP appliances so that they could take over this task. -
Infrastructure Services ArchitectFujitsu Managed Services Apr 2005 - Jun 2006Used prior experience to eliminate network design elements that make networks brittle and prone to service impacting outages.Contributed to key projects, including the replacement of the UK MPLS backbone, enterprise wireless, shared services firewall and branch office WAN optimizationThe role generated large financial savings for Fujitsu. A brittle system is functional, but can break easily and unexpectedly during maintenance, or in response to failures. This makes these systems very expensive to operate. Finding and permanently resolving chronic problems saves overtime in the short term and, more valuably, protects the company’s reputation and contract renewals. Additionally it frees up operation staff to assist with the design improvement efforts. This creates a positive upward spiral of continuous improvement.I was involved in a number of new projects including a replacement for the UK MPLS backbone, enterprise wireless, shared services firewall and branch office WAN optimization. All of these involved careful analysis of the business requirements to produce a good set of technical requirements. This analysis was used for product evaluation and proof of concept trials.
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Principal Network EngineerComcast Ip Services Apr 2002 - Apr 2005Philadelphia, Pa, UsAs technical lead for a network traffic analysis tools project I was the principle author of a RFP and fielded questions from 16 vendors who responded to it. I led the evaluation and scoring which involved multiple teams. At the end of the process, I presented the results and recommendations to senior management.I developed a high-level network design and optical transport design for a million subscriber network, including a method of generating diagrams that combined the optical transport and maps. This design, which involved numerous OC48s and several multi-hundred kilometer OC192 links, was successfully implemented and used until it was replaced years later.I worked regularly with the Comcast venture capital group to help then evaluate the strength of the technology during presentations by companies seeking investment.I was the technical lead for the team that developed a network security architecture to simplify the network, speed up service implementation, and reduce troubleshooting time. We accomplished this by recognizing that the network needs to support the organizational structure, not work against it.I also had significant involvement in the change management process. This ran the gamut from technical review of designs and the mentoring of design engineers, to being part of the change approval board, including emergency change request approvals.I researched several wireless technologies (WiFi, WiMAX and DOCSIS based) in order to assess them for their compatibility, or competitive potential, with cable. The end result was the production of a presentation for briefing senior management.I was technical lead for the project to calculate the difference in network availability for various design options, and find out what the key availability factors were overall. The model was built up from the MTBF and MTTR numbers for individual cards in the Cisco 7600.
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Network ArchitectExcite@Home Aug 2000 - Dec 2001I designed the networking aspect of a mail architecture that could scale to at least 20 million mailboxes at Excite@Home. This involved the use of Alteon 180e load balancers and careful attention to high availability design using ether channel and spanning tree.I was responsible for standardizing designs and documentation of regional networks that supported 4 million+ cable modem subscribers. The designs used Extreme Black Diamond and Summit series switches, Cisco GSR & 7200 series routers, and Catalyst switches. The wide variety of underlying transport technologies, limited rack space, rapid growth of subscriber numbers, and the need for reasonable design lifespan made this an interesting challenge for every design. The design process included the investigation of new technologies to help drive down costs while continuing to improve system availability. To this end OC12 and OC48 Cisco DPT rings were designed and successfully deployed - a proprietary technology that is a precursor to IEEE standard RPR 802.17.Much of the underlying transport that Excite@Home used was unlit fiber. Tight constraint on the number of strands, bandwidth requirements that exceeded the support capabilities of a single circuit on 10-year-old fiber at 80km+ distances made this a challenge. Finding an economical solution provided an opportunity to work with optical vendors developing DWDM products and to help the vendors modify their gear to meet the specific needs of data networks. -
Senior Network EngineerEds At Gmac Residential Mortgage Mar 1997 - Aug 2000Team lead for an engineering team who successfully completed a number of significant projects including:Developed an architecture document to bring order to a network in chaosDeveloped a set of standard branch network designs to simplify installation and troubleshooting.Implemented a single remote access solution that supports 300 simultaneous users over ISDN and analog modems. Designed and inserted a high availability multi-site firewall into a mature network without service disruption.Designed, implemented, and supported a high performance, all switched LAN design with Gigabit Ethernet uplinks to replace the largely shared Ethernet with FDDI backbone. This design was then used in four other large buildings. Migrated the network from public to private addressing and from RIP to OSPF. Developed the network part of the disaster recovery plan to provide network continuity in the event of catastrophic equipment failure, or loss of a key building.
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ConsultantDigital Wave Communications Mar 1993 - Mar 1997Most of the networking projects at DWC were of a much more limited scale. Typically each network involved only one router, but each had its own design constraints and considerations. Getting the opportunity to design networks at this end of the size scale gave me an important perspective on large networks and the factors that influence design and equipment selection for firms of different sizes.I also worked on the technical aspects of web site production from complex HTML, to setting up and running web servers. I set up DNS, Mail, (SMTP & POP), Web and News servers and did some small scale firewall work.
Alan Laidlaw Skills
Ip
Network Design
Mpls
Routers
Routing
Troubleshooting
Firewalls
Ospf
Cisco Technologies
Disaster Recovery
Tcp/ip
Ethernet
Wireless
Multiprotocol Label Switching
Open Shortest Path First
Alan Laidlaw Education Details
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The University Of EdinburghElectronics & Electrical Engineering -
Bryn Athyn College Of The New ChurchBusiness And Marketing
Frequently Asked Questions about Alan Laidlaw
What company does Alan Laidlaw work for?
Alan Laidlaw works for Comcast
What is Alan Laidlaw's role at the current company?
Alan Laidlaw's current role is Principal Network Engineer @ Comcast | Network automation and documentation.
What is Alan Laidlaw's email address?
Alan Laidlaw's email address is al****@****ave.com
What is Alan Laidlaw's direct phone number?
Alan Laidlaw's direct phone number is +121535*****
What schools did Alan Laidlaw attend?
Alan Laidlaw attended The University Of Edinburgh, Bryn Athyn College Of The New Church.
What skills is Alan Laidlaw known for?
Alan Laidlaw has skills like Ip, Network Design, Mpls, Routers, Routing, Troubleshooting, Firewalls, Ospf, Cisco Technologies, Disaster Recovery, Tcp/ip, Ethernet.
Who are Alan Laidlaw's colleagues?
Alan Laidlaw's colleagues are David Fowle, Leah Ford, Kate Crowley, Luis Velez, Brandi Donehoo, Antionette Pamias, Israel Gurrola.
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